Untouchable
by Cindy Skaggs
Copyright © 2015 by Cindy Skaggs. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Chapter One
Thursday, 6:27 a.m.
The deal with the devil hadn’t been signed in blood, but Sofia was certain that breaking it would bring bloodshed. As long as it wasn’t her blood, she didn’t have a problem with it, because today, one way or another, she was breaking the agreement she’d never wanted to make.
She couldn’t think about the risks. Win or lose, everything would change and she needed change almost as desperately as she needed freedom. She glanced in the rearview mirror at her half-sleeping son. Her heart squeezed at the thought of all she would do today, but Eli was worth it. She tossed another glance in the mirror to see a car slip in behind her. Her hands flexed on the steering wheel.
Let the games begin, she thought sourly as she made a sudden right that took her off the main street and into a maze of a suburban neighborhood. The white sedan followed; hugging her bumper so tight she didn’t have room to breathe. She braked hard so the sedan had no choice but to back off. She eased her foot back on the accelerator and considered her options. Eli was safe enough. They were headed to a public place. Later in the day a tail would be deadly, but right now, it wasn’t her primary concern. She made a swift turn into a cul de sac and followed it with a rapid U-turn before circling back. The white sedan continued in the opposite direction. Sofia wiped damp hands on her workout pants.
Maybe she was just paranoid. Knowing that didn’t keep her from checking the mirror every few seconds for the rest of the trip, but the white sedan didn’t reappear. When she made it to the gym, she grabbed a parking spot close to the door and released a pent-up breath. She could do this.
Today was about taking back her freedom.
She grabbed Eli from his car seat and gave him a swift hug. With a chubby little hand, he shoved a cheese cracker shaped like a goldfish into her mouth as they walked toward the daycare area of the gym. The salt had been licked clean, but she smiled at her son. “Mmm,” she said, raising her eyebrow to cover the grimace.
Eli giggled.
She checked him into the daycare and made small talk with the workers before sparing a glance at the camera behind the counter. The gym’s video surveillance amplified the feeling that she was under near-constant watch. She stepped out of the daycare and onto the weight room floor. She knew without looking that the bodyguard was in place to her left. Tall, blond, built, and unseasonably tan, he was the epitome of everything she had left behind.
She walked past, heart pounding, before taking her backpack to the locker room and heading upstairs to the cardio floor. The treadmills were her torture of choice, so she found an empty one with a view of the yoga studio. The familiar whir of the belt calmed her nerves. She’d lost count of the times she had run on one of them like a hamster in a wheeled cage.
The cage was nice, for a cage. A two-story health club, it boasted 70,000 square feet dedicated to the pursuit of health and wellness. Happiness was optional. Sofia tuned into the pulse of the sterile space, her nerves hyperalert to the labored breathing of the runner next to her, the pervasive smell of sweat, and the hum of energy that flowed through the machines and the people who went nowhere on them.
Anticipation mixed with adrenaline to send her pulse into the red range on the treadmill’s heart rate monitor.
The target would arrive any moment. Sofia searched for the man in the pre-work crowd. He blended into the backdrop of the morning drudge. She liked that about him. A person accomplished more in the background. She knew that firsthand. Two years she’d spent playing nice; all while hatching a plan that hinged on an anonymous tryst with an unsuspecting target. This morning was phase one.
The erratic beat of her heart told her she wasn’t as blasé about this experiment as she wanted to believe. Admitting it cost her a few confidence points. She tapped the buttons on the control panel, forcing herself into a faster sprint designed to increase the adrenaline and decrease the doubts.
Doubt accomplished nothing. The plan was solid. The bodyguard wouldn’t follow her to yoga. No need. The weight room was downstairs near the daycare, so he had a solid view of the lower level. If she left the building, he’d know it. If she went to the locker room, he’d see it. He couldn’t see if she went to the mind and body studio so it was the perfect place to start.
The clock on the far wall showed five minutes to the hour and a new class was about to begin. The bodyguard was still on the bench press. Sofia slid off the end of the treadmill and reviewed the plan.
The target—she still didn’t think of him as a man, and that could pose a problem—was at the gym nearly as often as her. He’d joined last spring, so not long enough to be one of her watchers. He didn’t limit his time to bulking up with weights. He ran, like her, but not as fast or as long, and that was important.
She didn’t trust a man who could chase her down, if it came to that.
The rush from her final sprint filled her with toe-bouncing energy. Sofia Capri did not bounce. She did nothing to stand out in the crowd, but inside, energy mixed with nervous excitement as she waited several feet from the man who could help her more than he would ever know. As the previous class left the studio, she eased through the doorway, waiting to see where the target landed. She stretched her calves while watching in the mirror.
He wore navy sweats and a matching T-shirt, sleeved. No jewelry. No flash. He was of medium height and build, tended to blend into the crowd, and his face was not unattractive. He was honest looking. She could spend time with a man like that, in theory. He swiped a sanitizing cloth across a green mat at the back of the room. She strolled forward to stand next to him and smiled when he looked up. His eyes widened a second before he smiled back.
Yes, she thought, he was just about her speed. He would keep her proposition to himself. If not to himself, he wouldn’t blab about it to every man in the locker room before lunch.
As the class assembled, warmed up, and moved from one asana to the next, Sofia hoped her luck would hold. There was defeat in her past and fear in her present, but the future? It had potential.
The music hummed through the floor like an embryonic heartbeat as they moved into quiet meditation at the end of class. Her body stilled, absorbing the thrum of the music.
Now or never. Now or never, her brain chanted.
Not the best mantra to calm her nerves, but it was the truth. Time was not her friend. Already the next group lined up outside the door. She caught the target’s gaze in the mirror and smiled. The look of confusion on his face matched the trepidation in her heart. She turned to grab her shoes from along the back wall. Clumsy, her fingers fumbled with the laces as she tied her shoes.
The new class moved into the studio, making the room more crowded as Sofia took the plunge. Now or never. “Would you like to get some coffee?” she asked.
When he didn’t answer right away, she smiled and rose to her feet.
Mr. Average was gone. In his place stood six feet two inches of the wrong man.
***
Logan Stone had had his eyes on Sofia Capri for two years and counting. The woman commanded the attention of anything male within her sphere of influence, including him, but she’d never so much as acknowledged Logan’s existence. She wasn’t supposed to. He was supposed to be invisible.
The direct approach robbed him of all powers of conscious thought. Or maybe it was the smile that managed to convey mystery and uncertainty. And trouble. Trouble he couldn’t afford and didn’t want. He reminded himself that he was a professional. It took more than a disarming smile to counter years of training.
“Coffee?” He smiled, or tried to, and nodded in agreement. So much for training. His answer should have been a polite “no thank you,” or a firm “hell no,” but instead, he left Body Combat class before it began.
The cardio room was a maze of silver and black treadmills she navigated with a familiar speed before descending the stairs. The hum of ESPN on a nearby television did little to distract him from the woman in front of him. Runner lean, she packed an extra dose of curve. Despite an hour of yoga, her body was strung tight, with her back as stiff as that of any soldier, but she couldn’t keep the sway from her hips. Two years of watching had done little to dull his body’s instant reaction. Logan figured he might as well enjoy the view, because the cost of this little diversion was high.
An untrained observer wouldn’t notice the slight pause at the bottom of the stairs as she turned her gaze to the right. The glance-and-pause lasted mere seconds before she walked briskly past the membership desk and into the café. She went straight to the coffee counter. “A tall, non-fat mocha, no-whip, with half the pumps.”
Coffee drinkers had their own code and hers was high maintenance. The woman didn’t disappoint. A smile thawed Logan from the shock of her invitation. He ordered a coffee, black, and when she reached to pay, he swiped his card first. “I got it,” he said.
“Thank you.” The coffee machine sputtered as the barista worked on Sofia’s latte. She stared at the backside of the industrial coffee machine with a neutral expression. As often as he watched her—and he did watch—she maintained this disturbingly placid look. She never looked hurried or flustered or happy.
The woman was aloof; as starched and tailored as the clothes she habitually wore. The fact that she was elusive made her damn near irresistible. As evidenced by the fact that he hadn’t resisted the urge to go with her. He hadn’t even tried.
He couldn’t think of a single thing to break the ice. They called her the Ice Queen. In two years, she hadn’t dated, flirted with, or talked to a man. At all. She was socializing now, with him, and that made it news. Any witnesses, and the gym was filled with them, would note that it was unusual. It would stick out in their minds.
Logan glanced around to count the potential problems. A plump man fighting with a toddler near the restrooms outright stared as Sofia tapped her red fingertips against the coffee counter. Others were less obvious, like the two kitchen workers who came out from the backroom, one at a time, to talk to the guy making coffee. The sideways glance they gave to Sofia was anything but disinterested.
They might as well post the news on the member bulletin board. Logan had captured the attention of the Ice Queen. Yee-haw. Now all he had to do was figure out how he’d said yes when his brain had definitely said no. His boss had given him a direct no-contact order—observe and report—and he was breaking that because his brain had gone AWOL.
The bitter smell of espresso woke him from his Sofia-induced haze. He couldn’t afford to get lost in her spell. He needed to focus on damage control. How could he keep five days administrative leave from becoming permanent? Why had she singled him out? Did she know who he worked for or was he just the unluckiest schmuck in town?
By the restroom, the altercation between the dad and the little boy escalated so that the kid’s wails were heard across the cavernous space, drawing more unwanted attention. A few weightlifters glanced across the room toward the kid, but stopped when they saw Sofia. The Ice Queen accepted her coffee with a small, polite smile and headed for a table away from the crying child. The spot put her behind a pillar that blocked her from view.
“I’m Sofia.” She extended a narrow hand toward him.
A wave of cold rippled from her hand to his and then instantly heated. She broke contact with a barely audible gasp.
“Logan,” he said, and made eye contact with the most complicated woman he’d ever met. The brown eyes that didn’t quite meet his gaze were set deep and clouded with an emotion he couldn’t read. Dark shadows that spoke of sleepless nights rimmed dark-lashed eyes, giving her another layer of mystery, yet something in those eyes told him more about her than any two-inch thick file ever could.
She was beautiful, but not in a conventional sense. The beauty was in the pale skin and dark hair that gave her an exotic appearance. Up close for the first time, he noticed a slight overlap in her front teeth that made her seem less perfect and more approachable, and full lips, soft pink, that spoke of an innocence at odds with her history. Her hair was a warm chestnut that she pulled into a silky tail. Tiny bits of hair tore free in what he considered a practiced look.
She glanced at the wall of glass on the east side of the room and rubbed her arms, despite the glow of the June sun. “I’m glad you joined me. I’ve seen you at the gym before. How long have you been a member?”
Small talk from anyone else, but he knew she was fishing for answers. He went with the truth. She’d probably done the research. “Two years.”
“So this will be your second summer enjoying our great pool.”
“Third,” he said. “I joined in May.”
A muscle in her jaw twitched. It didn’t take a genius to know she was running the dates and not liking how it fit her timetable. And she was absolutely right. He wasn’t here by accident.
“Is something wrong?” he asked. The woman was a pawn, a weak link in a game where she had no power. Her jitters had him wanting to take it easy on her. It had nothing to do with training and everything to do with his upbringing.
“No.” She shook her head, her eyes focused in the distance. “I’m sure this is all very cryptic. Or not. Unless you’re used to women asking you for coffee? And then—”
He reached for her hand across the table, a move meant to soothe her obvious nerves. “It’s just coffee.”
She pulled her hand away and slid it onto her lap. “My…” She took a sip of coffee. “My work keeps me busy forty-six weeks a year and I don’t get much time for coffee with… Well, for just coffee. My six-week…”
Fingers shaking, she took another sip from the plastic-lidded cup. “My mandatory six-week vacation is coming up, and I thought maybe, that is, I was hoping…”
Sofia set the coffee firmly on the table and met his gaze for the first time. Her wide, espresso-colored eyes mesmerized him. The sincere expression startled him. A soul-deep sadness reflected in their depths.
“Honestly, I was hoping this year I wouldn’t have to vacation alone.”
***
The conversation continued along the script she had rehearsed, while inside she fought back panic. The script would have played better to the plain-Jane man upstairs who had left her in the lurch. There was such a small window of opportunity that she rushed blindly forward, playing out the scene she had practiced more times than she could count. In her exhaustive planning, Sofia had compiled a list of best and worst candidates for the job. Logan was number two on the worst list. Number one was at the free weights with the bodyguard.
The reasons were too numerous to ignore. Logan had joined the gym when she joined and she had every reason to believe that was not a coincidence. Yes, she knew how paranoid that sounded, but that didn’t make it wrong. It was possible he joined the gym to keep an eye on her. He wouldn’t be the first. That was a problem, as was the fact that she often caught him studying her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. She always paid attention. Sofia didn’t like being watched.
But more than the worry of who he might be or whom he might work for was an underlying threat. The man was built like a bodybuilder. He was taller than her, stronger than her, he ran farther and faster, and had the unfortunate distinction of being standout handsome. This was not a man that blended into the crowd. Worse, something about him sent feel-good shocks coursing through her like waves in a tranquility pool.
What in the name of all that was holy had she been thinking?
“Let me get this straight.” He rubbed a thumb along the rim of his coffee cup. “You want me to take a vacation with you?”
The judgment in his tone made her want to slink out of the room in disgrace. She forced herself to tune back into the conversation that had gotten so far out of her control.
At the counter, the barista joked with a mom and toddler while another worker disappeared into the back freezer. Sofia shivered, the cold caressing her skin. “I’m not talking anything inappropriate, Mr.–”
“Stone. Don’t you think you should know the name of the man you want to take on vacation?”
No, she thought. She hadn’t wanted to get that close, for the person to be that real, and while Sofia acknowledged her mistake, she moved forward with the plan. Forward. It was the only direction she knew. “I don’t like traveling alone. My job keeps me busy forty-six weeks a year, and I have—”
“Six weeks mandatory vacation,” he finished.
Sofia clenched a fist under the table. “I must have said that already.”
“And you want to leave tomorrow. To Europe? What makes you think I have a passport?”
Good question, Sofia thought. The people in her life—the people surrounding her the past several years—had passports. Two or three apiece. She’d assumed and that had been a mistake.
Her gaze shifted to the other tables in the café. Tables where people had normal conversations. A college-aged couple chatted two tables away. Maybe they flirted. Nothing wrong with a harmless flirtation. Closer to the barista, a couple fed dry cereal to a toddler. The husband reached over and brushed something from the woman’s cheek and she leaned into his hand, smiling.
The pain stabbed at her, the deep and unsatisfied longing for the normalcy this couple had. Tears threatened, but she pushed them down with the ruthlessness of a despot. It did no good to want what she couldn’t have. She turned her gaze back to Logan. She felt like a schoolgirl in front of the principal. “I didn’t think about that.”
“And what kind of person can take a vacation without notice?”
Someone with no discernible income and plenty of money. In short, the kind of people she knew. She pushed the coffee aside and swallowed what remained of her pride as she stood. “This was a mistake.”
“I didn’t say no.”
Her vision shimmered, but it could have been the glare from the morning sun. “You didn’t say yes.”
The Ice Queen—yes she knew what they called her—didn’t run from the café. She marched, shoulders back and head held high. The desk clerk looked up, but Sofia didn’t meet his gaze.
The cavelike entrance to the women’s locker room beckoned her into its camera-free zone. It wasn’t safe, no place was, but it offered fewer witnesses than the public spaces beyond. It gave her a moment to regroup.
She’d been so desperate for the plan to work that she hadn’t considered any of Logan’s logical questions. She’d wanted it too badly to think straight. The plan was ill conceived, she could see that now, and she was rusty. She didn’t remember how to have a simple cup of coffee with a man. The idea of weaving a web of seduction around him was ludicrous. She’d failed before she’d even begun.
She leaned against a locker. Her shoulders falling against the hard wood as she blinked away anger and frustration and hopelessness. The soothing music from the overhead speakers made her want to bang her head against the wall. She didn’t want to be soothed. She needed to focus. Compartmentalize.
She should have made contact earlier, to make sure the target had a passport and the freedom to travel, but that would have broken the agreement. And her ex would have known. The man had more informants than the FBI.
The buzz of a blow dryer reminded her that she wasn’t alone, even in the ladies’ room. She grabbed her backpack from the locker and tried to find a silver lining. At least Logan didn’t appear to have a connection to the inner core of gossip that ran through the gym like the backyard of a small town. It was one small blessing. Sofia tossed the backpack over her shoulder. All she wanted now was to get past the café without seeing Logan. Following the straight line of the beige tiles, she kept her gaze forward, shoulders back, as she made the march of shame to the daycare.
Taking a deep breath before entering the kids’ area, she opened the door and plastered a smile on her face. The list of mistakes she’d made in this life was long, but her son wasn’t one of them. She never let him see her upset. She gave her name at the counter and asked for Eli.
The young blonde gave Sofia a practiced smile. “Your husband already picked him up.”
“My husband?” Sofia didn’t soften the hard edge to her tone.
The girl smiled and tilted her head. “I’m sorry, your ex-husband already picked him up. You did tell us this morning that Eli would be gone for six weeks while he visited his father.”
Panic blew through her body like an explosion.
“Is everything okay?” the girl asked.
“I—” Sofia sucked in a lungful of air. “I didn’t realize we were doing the swap here, that’s all.”
Hadn’t she paid her penance a hundred times over?
As if the failed plan wasn’t bad enough, now any hope she harbored of recovering it was shot to hell. Leave it to Nick to alter the arrangements at the last minute. She pivoted on one foot and went back the way she’d come. She peered into the weight room. Eli’s bodyguard was gone. There was no way Nick had come to the gym, but maybe he’d had Vince act as go-between. It wouldn’t be the first time, but why hadn’t the bodyguard said anything?
Nick had no right. She could accept the fact that the plan failed straight out of the shoot. She could accept that she didn’t have anyone to use as cover to get out of the country. What she couldn’t accept was what this did to Eli. He didn’t have his clothes. Or the elephant he slept with at night. She didn’t get to say good-bye. Her throat constricted. She coughed to break off the tears before they started.
The one lesson she’d learned above all others was to control any visual clues of her emotions that someone could use to manipulate or control her, but inside, she seethed. It had been one hell of a bad morning. Nick would not get away with this autocratic bullshit. Not today. She marched to the courtesy phone and punched in her ex-husband’s cell phone number.
“Who is this?” he answered.
“Classy, Nicky,” she said with the sweetness of a honeybee. “Is phone etiquette beneath you?”
“What do you want, Sofia?”
“We had an agreement. Thursday at six o’clock. I have nine hours left.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play games, Nicky. Why did you take Eli early?”
“I didn’t.”
Good God, that couldn’t be right. “Yes. You did.”
“You playing games with me, Sof? ʼCause I think you know better. I warned you before. You try to take my kid, I’ll kill you.”
No doubt he would do it. Her hands shook. She couldn’t help Eli dead. “I’m not playing, Nicky. I’m at the gym. Eli’s gone.”
“Prove it.”
If Nick didn’t have Eli, who did?
“Call Vince,” she said, her voice rising. “He’s supposed to guard Eli. Where is he?”
“You trying to make my guy take the fall?” he asked. “Bad move.”
“I’m trying to find our son,” she hissed.
“That’s my job. And when I do, we’re going to adjust this little custody arrangement of ours.” He clicked off without warning.
Sofia dropped to the chair beside her, her mind going back to the last time she’d seen Eli, to the soggy goldfish and his innocent giggle.
Did Nick have Eli? Was he finally following through on his threat to take him full-time?
No, she thought. He won’t take my son.
She took a deep breath, then another. Yoga had been an escape at first, but she’d learned to appreciate its calming effects. She used it to temper her emotions and regain control over her body. At the moment, she willed her breath to counteract the panic that sent adrenaline through her fight or flight system. While her body stilled, her mind replayed the morning. Eli had been grouchy. He didn’t want to get up. To avoid a fight, she’d promised him pizza at Chuck E. Cheese and all the arcade games he could play. Their last day together would be special, she’d promised him.
At 6:40, she’d left Eli with a daycare worker who’d led Eli to the little kid room. He galloped like a horse down the hall and asked about craft time. Only after he was out of sight did Sofia go into the gym proper. Then what? She closed her eyes and rewound the day step-by-step. The “what” was what had happened to Vince? He’d been there when she’d gone to yoga, but after? Sofia hadn’t looked, too absorbed in avoiding him. The pulse in her neck jumped. He’d definitely been gone when she’d tried to pick up Eli.
The clang of weights falling into place acted like an alarm. She opened her eyes and glanced at the television monitor above the desk. This wasn’t an ESPN/CNN TV. It was the split screen of all the rooms in the daycare that parents used to keep an eye on their kids. If there was an upside to the privacy invasion of the ever-present video surveillance system, it was that nothing happened that wasn’t on record. She rose and walked back to the daycare.
The young woman at the desk glanced up. Her nametag said Tamara. “Is everything okay, Miss Capri?”
“Fine, Tamara. I’m just being an overly cautious mom.” She smiled, thankful for the years of practice at masking her emotions. “I couldn’t reach Eli’s father. I was hoping you could show me the video footage of him picking up Eli so I won’t worry.”
“Certainly.” Tamara rose. “If you’ll follow me to the office, I’ll have one of the managers bring that up for you.”
Following the girl out the daycare door and into the gym, Sofia felt the tingle of exposure tickle her nerves. She was being observed. She often felt that way. The trick was learning to ignore it. She lifted her chin in defiance. Let them watch.
Sofia followed silently while the girl explained the situation to shift manager James. He was a big man, a former football star who’d put on a few pounds since the glory days. He’d been with the gym since it opened four years ago, which only meant he wasn’t a Calvetti plant. That didn’t mean he wasn’t on Nick’s payroll now.
James led her to a small office adjacent to the membership desk. It housed a row of three computers with requisite black chairs and an indistinct painting. The chair groaned when he sat. He motioned for her to take the seat next to him, but the proffered chair put the big man between her and the only exit. That was a rookie mistake. She took the seat nearest the door and waited as he rewound the security footage. Even on the exit side of the room, the office walls closed in on her. The manager wasn’t as large as one of Nick’s associates, but he was tall and broad and filled the room in a way that made her twitchy. Her heart skipped and jumped like a kid on too much sugar.
The manager rewound to the time Eli was picked up. As he pushed play, someone paged him on the radio he habitually carried. “I’ll be right back, Miss Capri.”
She didn’t know if his departure was a blessing or a curse. She felt safer without his linebacker presence, but for all she knew, Nick was the one calling. A phone call like that wouldn’t bode well for her. She watched the silent tape as a harried young mother picked up an infant, and then watched Vince pick up Eli. The boy went without a whimper. Why not? Vince was his bodyguard. Vince was always there. And Vince now had her son.
Sofia slammed a fist onto the counter. The sting of it made her angrier. Nick had to be behind it and he sure as hell wasn’t going to get away with it. On the desk next to the computer sat a box of empty DVDs. She grabbed one and put it in the computer’s DVD drive. There were advantages to having lived where she’d lived with whom she’d lived. Burning a copy of a video was only one of her many hidden talents. She slipped the copy of the DVD into the waistband of her sweats as the manager swung the door open.
“Did you find what you needed, Miss Capri?”
She smoothed her T-shirt over her hips to soothe her nerves, but inside, her stomach churned. His body blocked the light and made the room feel more enclosed than the door had. She nodded, her mouth too dry to speak. Squeezing past him, she all but ran from the room and out to the parking lot. The sun and the open space eased the panic. She pulled out sunglasses; not to block the glare but to hide the emotions that played out in her eyes.
Sofia Capri was in full-blown panic mode.
As her mind raced, she forced her body to slow down, to make every movement precise and unhurried. Until she saw the car. The flat rear tire on the Volvo was no less than she’d expected and everything she feared. The backpack dropped from her numb fingers.
Whether she called the auto club or changed the tire herself, it was time that Vince would use to get farther away from her.
“Problem?” Someone asked behind her.
She whirled to confront the voice.
Logan. His dark hair was damp from a recent shower, but he hadn’t bothered to shave.
“Your car?” he prompted.
“Flat tire.” It came out glum, despite her best effort.
“Not the end of the world. I can change it for you?”
“I was just debating that myself, but I really have to get home. I have an appointment…”
“I’m happy to give you a lift.” He smiled and waited for her response. The smile warmed his face and lit his eyes. Genuine, she thought, a little surprised by the way it hit her deep in the gut.
An hour ago this man had intimidated her. Ridiculous. What power did he have over her? The power to say no? So much the better for both of them. The rejection didn’t matter. It was a pinprick to her pride. She’d forgotten real terror, the kind that crawled under her skin and leached it of warmth, but she could always count on Nick to remind her.
“It’s really not a problem.” Logan waited beside her as she stared morosely at the flat.
Rejection might humiliate her, but it couldn’t kill her. She needed help and Logan had offered. “I’d appreciate a ride.”
He picked the backpack off the ground where she’d dropped it and led her deeper into the asphalt jungle. In a parking lot filled with SUVs and four-wheel-drives, he led her to a midsized gray sedan. It surprised her. He was a tall man and would certainly look at home in a big, black SUV. He held the passenger door for her, which unsettled her more. It had been a long time since anyone had treated her like a lady. Longer still since she’d believed it.
The parking lot faded in the rearview mirror before he asked where to drop her. He didn’t engaging in small talk. He asked where she lived, then left her alone. Traffic on the divided highway was light, with plenty of maneuvering room. It took her five minutes on a good day. Right now, it took an eternity as Sofia wondered which direction Vince had taken when he’d left the gym, wondered if he’d taken his car or another, and worried if Eli had had a car seat. Was there an accomplice traveling with them?
She glanced at the speedometer. Logan drove the speed limit. Sofia pressed her foot into the floorboard. No matter how strongly she wished otherwise, their speed remained too slow.
The dark grey interior of the car was quiet and climate controlled, like the man behind the wheel. He didn’t tap his fingers on the steering wheel or curse at traffic or listen to the radio. It was all she could do not to slide her leg over the console and press her foot on the gas pedal. As they turned into the gates outside her neighborhood, she tossed him the electronic key card that opened the gate. Every delay sent Eli farther from her. She directed Logan to the right and around the bend to her house.
He whistled when she pointed it out. “Nice house.”
“It’s just a house.” She shrugged. It was nice, from the outside looking in. Like its neighbors, the two-story stucco home stood back from the road on a half-acre lot that was manicured to the Homeowner Association’s specifications. Two large oaks framed the front entry and provided shade for the wall to ceiling windows in the living room. A long stone drive led to a three-car garage and its loft apartment.
Logan pulled into the drive, stopping near the walkway to the front door. “I live in a house,” he said. “This is more.”
She shrugged. Her love-hate relationship with it had nothing to do with appearances. “It’s just a house,” she repeated.
“If you say so. Something like, ‘it’s just coffee?’”
The irony wasn’t lost on her. This morning’s coffee was supposed to be more. She smiled sadly. This morning her only worry was how to lure an unsuspecting sap into a plan that now seemed ridiculously out of reach. How on earth could she live the rest of her life without her sweet baby boy? She closed her eyes to block the thought.
Logan walked around and opened her door. “You know,” he said, “I never said no.”
She waved her hand dismissively as she climbed from the sedan. “That’s the least of my worries. Thanks for the ride.”
Taking her backpack from Logan’s large hands, she ignored the sizzle of his touch as she climbed the front stairs to her house. Sizzle was dangerous.
At the door, the click as she turned the key wasn’t the lock turning, but the click of something far more deadly. A woman in her position knew better. She dropped the bag, jumped the steps to the walk, and dove behind Logan’s car the moment the entryway exploded.
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